so Thanksgiving camping must not be as popular as I imagined!

I've done both Thanksgiving and Christmas camping and it's usually very quiet at the campgrounds.

 

I stay off the roads due to the holiday traffic etc. I think a lot of people have the same thoughts that I do.

 

I would guess most people would rather be home with their families.

 

Seeing as the rest of my family aren’t huge cold weather campers and, well very traditional we stay home for the holidays. Its hard enough to get everyone together to come home, it would be dang near impossible if it’s a destination trip. Besides my mom loves to go all out for thanksgiving, cooks for an army even though it’s usually just the immediate family. She shines during the holidays when she has the family together, I can’t take that away.

 

It may depend on the section of the continent, distance from populated areas, weather predictions, etc.
We live in ABQ, NM, where the weather can be great to hideous for Thanksgiving - for us, the worry can be the road conditions from here to there and back. If we had planned a trip to the west this year, it would have been dicey enough that we'd have canceled, since a storm tracked along I-40 at the time we'd have been traveling. [ABQ had a record snowfall for Thanksgiving, around 4" at the airport, previous record in the '30s had been 1-1/2"; friends got around 8". We had an ice lump in the driveway when we got home.]
Several years ago, we went to SE NM, and the campground had a few people in it. We came home a day early, a bad winter storm had gone much farther south than expected and we were dealing with lows in the teens and high winds.
We've been meeting friends at AZ SPs for the last 4 Thanksgivings. The previous 3, the campgrounds were full, often with large family gatherings in each site. In addition to the holiday campers, snowbird season is usually beginning too, so some of those folks have been in the campgrounds.
This year, the campground near Tucson was fully reserved, but never did fill, and actually quite a few left - high wind, fallen branches, heavy rain (with wind). Those depending on canopies, EZ-ups and the like were out of luck. Our wind wall shredded, but we got the shelters down before more damage occurred. Courtenay said there were remains of EZ-up frames etc. in the dumpster. The popups I'd seen in our loop left, and the tents were gone too. (It was bad enough we hoped the people in a couple of the small tents took shelter with the people in the larger rig in the same site.)
We're hoping the weather is better next year, if we have another one like this year, we'll go back to going to our friends' house for the holiday.

 

Before I retired Big Bend NP and Padre Island National Seashore were always close to capacity during Thanksgiving week. I don't know about the state parks, Big Bend and PINS were always our Thanksgiving camping destinations. One of the rangers at Big Bend told us it was their busiest week of the year. If you wanted back country camping you had to have your permits by Monday morning or you'd be stuck in Cottonwood.

 

Most my family don’t camp.

 

I'd love to camp over thanksgiving, but my wife's a fair weather camper, so that puts the kibosh on that.....

 

I have one family branch that camps every year around Thanksgiving. They go to the ocean and clam dig and enjoy the family group. Then they go home and everyone splits between their various family groups for the actual holiday. It's nice for them to all be together every year without upsetting inlaws, etc.

I camped over Tday when I worked because it was an easy 4-day minimum trip and I split from a small family. Last year, I loaded the dogs and bird in the clipper and drove it to work that Wednesday. As soon as we got the go ahead to leave early, I was in the clipper driving off to camp. Now that I'm retired, it doesn't really matter when I go - holidays only matter during peak season and that's to avoid them.

 

We stayed in Atlanta State Park in NE Texas and it was fairly quiet. The loop we stayed in was half full and really quite. We spent 4 days at the campsite and had really good weather for the most part.

 

Tried to get a site is several parks in central fla and all were taken! So i went to a couple of them and they were half empty..... The ranger said folks reserve and then dont show. So that means the rest of us cant camp

 

Camped there for spring break 2018. Most of the time it was windy, rainy, and cold. Spring break 2019 we went to Florida.

The warmer the climate you wish to camp for Thanksgiving the harder it will be to get a site.

 

We just came back from fl. You got that right. CG was full.

 

We actually left Thanksgiving morning headed for Lost Dutchman SP I-40 was snow-packed and icy until just west of Grants. We arrived at LDSP without incident. That evening we had 67 mph gusts that rocked the camper so bad at times we didn't get much sleep not to mention the 6 tents that where in the campground where collapsed and broken as well as it rained all night. Friday and Saturday were absolutely wonderful. It was a awesome Thanksgiving weekend.

 

@bearman512 - Love Lost Dutchman, but not sure we would have braved the roads. We left on Tuesday, next year we plan to leave Sunday for Patagonia SP.
We have no idea how high the winds were, they blew for many hours over 3 days. There was at least one micro-burst, and there were a few times we wondered if we'd be on the stabs and/or tongue jack when it was over.

 

We camped in Fall Creek Falls, TN the campground filled up after Thanksgiving which was surprising to me. We started taking a weeklong Thanksgiving camping trip last year and it was a blast. Figured we would see more doing the same, but enjoy the silence before everyone starts to show at the CG's

 

My parents camp every Thanksgiving. It's our go to. In fact I was there when i finally found the camper I wanted and left the campground to go buy it. It varies from year to year where they camp. This year was not as empty as it has been, and not as full as it has been either.

 

The private CG on Tybee Island (near Savannah GA) has "special" rates for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. And by "special," I mean "through the roof."

My son's in-laws take a big camping trip this time of year (this very weekend, this year). I had planned to join them, except I doinked around, didn't get reservations, and the TV decided to develop some electrical problems anyway. I hope I got that sorted, but we'll… hey, maybe we can hook up the Starflyer and take it camping, the next pleasant weekend.